Renraku
Top megacorp for matrix services. Like Shiawase, they're not afraid to put their mothership name on everything they sell, so they have pretty good name recognition, even if they don't have the consumer brand strength of the Azzies. Also in possession of the most infamous special forces group of the Big Ten, the Renraku Red Samurai. If you see that red armor in the first place, you're probably either an executive or you're already dead. Notably the least centralized megacorp, as no individual owns more than 10% of Renraku stock.
In Seattle, they've had to very slowly buy their way back into favor after being responsible for unleashing a murderous AI on tens of thousands of their own workers living in the Renraku Arcology. Despite the best efforts of the military, for literal years, the SCIRE was a giant metahuman slaughterhouse in the middle of downtown Seattle with Renraku's name on it, and people haven't forgotten.
Culture
As a global pleaser, Renraku also has one of the most unique philosophies among the megas and in particular the Japanacorps. While other corps bring their culture to their HQs and offices, Renraku builds theirs with the local culture in mind. They adopt local ways rather than trying to colonize locals into their base culture. This stems, and started, from their first move. In Chiba, they shed the ways of Slovenia and took on the traditional Japanese roles. Blending and communication are the identifying characteristics of Renraku in the wild. This means citizens of Renraku have fewer problems integrating and interacting with local populations. Renraku has a reputation as being anti-meta, but that tendency only really exists in places that are predominantly anti-meta (as Japan was for a long time, and still, to a degree, is). In more progressive areas, they’re as progressive as the people around them. Even if Renraku employees were raised in the cultures of North America and then moved to Asia, they have the skills to adapt thanks to a tradition of blending in and respecting the cultures where they were raised along with those of other Renraku offices. Evo may be about acceptance of everyone in a genuine way, but Renraku makes their clients and citizens feel like they belong to the Renraku family. The citizens of Renraku see their corporation as a family to serve and protect. Tales of those abandoned in the SCIRE are blamed on the rhetoric of others with only a rebellious few thinking for themselves. They are a service corporation and serve both outward and inward. The executives have a slightly different outlook. They understand the need for sacrifice and protection of the bottom line. Citizens are valuable assets—but corporate assets, each with their own specific value. They are valuable as assets when they are valuable to the corp. When they’re not—bad things happen. When a job is contracted to remove or correct a Renraku exec, it’s usually because they’ve risked and lost more than they are worth. Most workers understand this and actively seek to increase their value.
Public Agenda
The boardroom and top executives know how Renraku got where they are. They know they ride on the backs of their citizens, and as long as they can keep the people working and serving the needs of Renraku, they can keep growing and moving forward. Around the world, Renraku embeds themselves in the operations and basic functions of society. The Matrix exists in many cities because Renraku handles the infrastructure. City services run on Renraku software. Hell, tons of services run on Renraku software. They handle local tourism, consumer goods, cyber and biotech for the average consumer, city services (usually hidden in subsidiaries to avoid the image of a monopoly), local transportation operations, and tons more. There is rarely a day that Renraku does not touch the lives of the average SINner in some way. Billions of transactions, small and large, funnel wealth and power back to Renraku. They’ve learned from the past and taken a page from fellow Japanacorp, Shiawase, to avoid the spotlight and therefore avoid attacks and disruptions from rivals.
History
Way back when, Renraku came into existence when Inazo Aneki bought a devastated Keruba International and moved from Slovenia to Chiba. That’s a grand simplification of what happened, but it’s the seed that started the titan that is Renraku and gave them their golden ticket for the Corporate Court. In the early years they stayed small, took small but choice bits that fell from the other Japanacorps, and gradually grew to be the number three megacorp in the world. Over the years they’ve faced internal issues from a dragon’s will, the loss of a monument to their success to the madness of an AI, and a patch where they sat quietly back and avoided the backlash by keeping themselves out of the spotlight. That same time out of the spotlight also allowed them to quietly insinuate themselves into the service industry on a global scale.
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